DISCLAIMER: I don't own this stuff. But if you, as a peer, want to use someone I created, you gotta ask first, mmkay?

The character I roughly base this story on is a Lv. 48 assassin, named "TheDan" in Scania. Feel free to contact me, I'm usually not doing anything terribly important online and I'd love to see some peers or fans in-game! Sorry for the long wait, once again, but you know how it is. I don't really have a specific excuse, but I don't think it is a good idea to force myself to write, especially if I'm stressed out from Real Life stuff. And I remember reading that same line back a few years ago when I was reading Harry Potter and Tales of Symphonia fanfics, and saying 'ohmygod that is so bull you're just lazy'. And you know what? It's not bull, though I am lazy. C'est n'avoidable pas. D:

Also, I made a Guild with my good buddy Nick. We have an Emblem. It's called 'NEDM', which, for you uninformed, stands for 'Not Even Doom Music' and it is an online fad (creation of YTMND-dot-com) that is highly against teenagers setting cats on fire. Think I'm kidding? Run NEDM into your Google searchbar. Leeeeeaarrrrrnnn. Anyway, we need active Literate members, any level. Scania, of course.

This chapter's plot was helped along by Sire Conlan himself, in the form of a little role play we'd acted just for this occasion. (See? I put you in the credits the first time around, this time. Hah! Lose, Sire.)

Also in this chapter, featuring my above-stated good buddy Nick as the infamous Albino Popsicle.

In other news, Conlan will be writing his own story soonly. It will take place (we presume) around the same time and place as the one you're reading presently, but from Conman's perspective. No guarantees that our fanbases will have similar interests in writing, but you should read it anyway because this guy is sexyhawt. Keep an eye out for a fanfic by 'Hid Lanef', and I'll have a title for you as soon as I can.

And now, the reader reviews thing:

-Crostini - Well, psh, threatening me is so gonna help. Bring it on, hot momma. And your little comment seems to be showing up more than once or twice... I don't know how I make it so realistic. Maybe it's just my personal writing style? Maybe I'm just awesome; We'll go with that. F2.

-Deviruchi - Ohhh, thank you. Also, don't rush genius. D:

-Hid Lanef - Es tee eff you, Conman. DDD:

-StargazerBlue - The real plot hasn't really reared its ugly head yet, I still need to give my characters personalities and explain the world they live in before I can get into it. Or are you saying my story has gotten you lost? By all means, contact me, I'll clear you up. I'm putting my IM names below, actually, because nobody adds me using the information in my profile. F4.

-Saiyuki Tasuke - Writing little romantic bits is a lot of fun, actually. Take it from Mr Sensitive, though, it's not easy. D:

-Master Cheif (And Arbiter? In one room? how can dis b?) - I'll get to it, and probably leave you a review before this chapter is even completed. :D -sweatdrop-

-Arthur Savorian - You need to be on AIM more often. D:

-Hamina-neesan - OMFG HAIIIIII(tilde)!

-ahem-

NOW

Read on to discover the secrets I may give you! But first, a follow up from the last chappie.

- (That was exactly 75 hyphens. I love this new word processor.)

"What is it with you and pink?" Allie asked, glancing at my tie.

"It reflects my personality so well," I sang, and she giggled.

I was wearing my hair slicked back with some gel we'd found in the bathroom, and a pair of blue-tinted rectangular glasses that were popular back when my and Conlan had first met. I was wearing a fancy black tuxedo (open) with a white button-up shirt and a pink tie that was absolutely perfect for me. I had black dress pants, black socks and of course, my Pink Whitebottoms. Allie, on the other hand, had found a set of Diao Chan clothes in what used to be Hamina's room, and I must say she looked quite stunning in that outfit. It wasn't very modest, though, and it didn't take long for her to convince me to lend her my jacket.

I prepared our bags and we set off. It was only noon. We'd be there soon, and then we could see Conlan and Lyo. And if there was anything I could do to help her, I would do so.

"If there is one true religion," I said, acting quite chipper, "It must revolve around Ilbis."

"Pshaw!" Allie said, turning to stick her tongue at me. "Surely it would revolve around the one responsible for buying you those Ilbis."

We laughed and continued onwards. How she'd managed to get ahead of me, I don't know, and I didn't really care. I picked off two Junior Sentinels from my perch beneath Allie, ignoring the drops for now. They were hardly worth anything, and at any rate we had more important things to do now.

"You should give yourself more Haste," Allie complained as we both felt the effects of the spell wear off. "It doesn't really do much for me. I just feel a little more aware when you use it."

"It's only level two," I whined. "And I don't want to waste points on it yet. The Critical Throw thing is really helping me out. Most of these shots they're showing me can kill a monster in a hit. Sometimes two."

Allie nodded. "Actually, yeah. Archers have the same skill. Except, we got it immediately after becoming an archer, we didn't have to wait until getting promoted."

"We're not so different, you and I," I said in an unearthly tone. She rose an eyebrow. I casted another Haste and we kept moving.

Floor sixteen, I said to myself. And it's not even four o' clock yet. We're making great time.

I jumped a separate way from a safe platform as Allie. I distinctly heard her crossbow twang in an odd manner as she fired what I knew to be a Double Shot. I focused my breathing and smiled a little, then unleashed a Lucky Seven on an unsuspecting little Sentinel. It was four quarters of a monster before it could even process that there was a second star behind the first.

The power! The rush of the hunt! I threw a star normally at another of the robots, admiring the quality of the eight-tipped silver blur.

Wait, silver? Hadn't it been an ironish colour, with a red ribbon trailing it? Or were those the old wolbis I got from the Dark Lord?

I seemed to have forgotten. No matter. Where was I?

Wait...

Where AM I?

A powerful smell erupted in front of me. It was as if someone had shoved my face into an open stomach of a decomposing corpse. I felt myself gag, but even when I breathed, I was only sucking in dead body. This smell, it was physical, it was all empowering, and it made me vomit.

I felt myself collapse to a side, felt that odd feeling of deja vu as I recognized the fact that the ground and my left lower body were in contact. I tried to breathe but it wasn't working; So I panicked and tried harder only to discover that I was throwing up.

Wait, I knew that I was throwing up, how did that happen.

I couldn't breathe. I tried to cough but it wasn't working. Why...?

Ohh, I was suffocating. The barf must have clogged my throat... Oh, come on! What a pathetic way to . . .

Elsewhere... No, not elsewhere, but also elsewhen, in some time as well as some place foreign, I watched it all happen. All of it. Everything.

I watched a hairy and hump-backed woman, unclothed, pick up a fallen oak branch and continually fap an Orange Mushroom with it until she was satisfied. I watched a man who looked as if he had never trimmed his face in his life (which in fact, he hadn't), sit on a ledge and push large boulders onto the Copper Drakes below. I watched a tall, handsome man clothed in white and gold remove his bride's veil to kiss her for the first time as a married couple. I watched the same wife stare as the man threw dinnerware onto the floor and storm out. I watched and started to feel uncomfortable as if I wasn't supposed to be here.

The feeling doubled as the everywhen brought me to where I was not. But then I was there, and yet I did not belong, and I did not belong, and it knew I did not belong, and yet I was here and there at once. I watched as the giant Golem known as Zakum brought down an enormous fist onto an unsuspecting mage. I not only watched but felt as that mage was crushed, as each of my/our/his bones were crushed within a split second.

I realized then that I wanted out. I wanted to go back, where it tasted bad but Allie was there, and there was some sense of order. Here, it was pure chaos, and I could not stand it. We could not stand it, and we wanted out. We could not stand it.

We could not stand it, and so we left in a green flash.

"Hoy, milady, he is waking up."

A voice, slightly accented in the olde dialect of Ellinia, brought me from my stupor in the same way that an angry homeowner would pull you out of his daughter's room.

"Dan? Danny?"

That was Allie's voice, and I opened my eyes. Hadn't she been crushed by that Zakum...? Wait, hadn't I been crushed?

"What happened to the mage?" I asked, and then his name came to me. "What happened to Todd? Where's Todd?"

"Todd?" Allie and the random cleric with the accent said as one. And then he laid me back down. "Easy there, my friend, for you have sustained a great fall."

I made a sound somewhere between 'Huh?' and 'Ughhh,' as I realized what had happened. I'd had another one of those vision-things and passed out. I must have thrown up and lost my footing on a high platform at once.

"You're lucky this guy was on his way to Nath," Allie explained, jabbing a thumb in the cleric's direction. "He said you'd be okay... Are you?"

"He'll have an ache in the skull for a spell," the cleric said, helping me sit up carefully. He was wearing the standard level sixty-ish clothing: A golden Ankamoon and a Green Seraphim hat. His hair was dark and a tad long, but neat. He had fair skin and dark brown eyes, and carried a long Thorns. "But you will be good to go on your way as soon as your blood flow resumes its natural course. And, here, drink one of these." He handed me a bottle full of a clear liquid, and I sniffed it before carefully sipping it. It didn't really have much of a taste.

"Er, what is this stuff?" I asked.

"Water, my friend," he answered, looking at me humourlessly.

"Oh. Er, right."

I still couldn't get those thoughts out of my head, though they seemed to be dissipating as I tried to grasp them. I vaguely remembered a woman being married, and the whole thing with Todd. It was odd, I felt as if there were a sort of connection with both of them...

I pushed it aside for now.

"Well, thanks for that, really," I said to the cleric, offering him the half-full water bottle. "I guess I owe ya one."

"Oh, my friend, you can keep that one, by all means." He waved the water bottle away, and I pocketed it.

"Who are you, then?"

"They call me the Albino Popsicle, sir. And how shall I refer to you?"

"What?"

"Your name is What...? That is quite modern, sir, I suppose it is one of-"

"No, no, the name's Dan. I meant, your own name is kinda... Er..."

He smiled. "I like the word 'eccentric', personally. Albino Popsicle is a pseudonym."

"Oh, ri-"

Allie interrupted our awkward conversation with a shrill "Look out!" from the rope above us.

Before I could react, Albino Popsicle thrust his forearm, barely covered by a robe, behind him into the direct path of a Sentinel. Not a Jr. Sentinel, the real thing. These guys were dangerous. But Albino Pops- Okay, this is just silly...

But Albino (who mind you is not an albino), as he shall be henceforth referred to as, swatted the thing aside with his bare forearm as if it were a green-shelled Snail. I stared in awe at his power, trying to figure out what he'd done, and Allie suddenly gasped.

"You- You're a Hacker!" she shrieked, and my stomach dropped in fear.

"I beg your pardon?" he said with a small, knowing smile.

"You! You're a lawbreaker!" she continued. "That is an accursed power, an ancient evil! I can't believe you haven't been thrown into jail yet; I thought they got rid of all of you!"

Now, Harnessing the Ancient Cheifs' Knowledge (known in speech as Hacking: H.A.C.) is widely known as a threat to humanity. At first, people will Hack for power or for money, for fun or for vengeance on others, for good or for evil, but in the end, in every occasion, Hackers are evil people. It is known by every child in every village, and Hackers are both hated and feared in every community.

"I must say, milady, your words do hurt me," he replied quietly.

Allie laughed fakely. "Don't try to play me," she said. "I'm not gonna be persuaded by a Hacker."

"I am not going to try anything," he said. "I will just be on my way. I do apologize for any bad karma I may have caused upon you, and I do not deserve your forgiveness."

"Damn right you don't," Allie snarled quietly. I could feel her becoming more relaxed and less afraid as Albino turned to leave.

"... Hold on a sec," I called out on a gut impulse. "You're not like the rest of them."

"How so?" he asked, turning his head halfway to look at me with one eye. "I am a Hacker. I studied the forbidden texts. I use my forbidden powers. If I am out killing Monsters, nobody else can do their jobs."

"Wait..." I said. "Just... I need your help. You see, my friend, his girlfriend was shot, and she's in a hospital, and surely you-"

"It would be suicide on my part to walk into a clinic," Albino said, looking the other way again. He continued off. "I may not be a selfish arse like the rest, but I am not stupid enough to turn myself in. Have a good day, and do not overwork yourself again."

"I wasn't overworking myself," I muttered to nobody. Allie and I didn't move for a few seconds.

"Come on," she suggested finally. "Lyo... Conlan."

"Right... Yeah," I agreed, and we continued up.

"So... What happened?" she asked, as soon as we were moving.

"When I passed out?"

"Yeah."

I didn't answer her. I didn't know myself.

Conlan was sitting outside of the clinic, wearing a pair of thick black sunglasses.

"Hey," I said. Allie stayed a few steps behind me.

"What do you two know about the Maffiya?" he asked casually, and stood up.

"What?"

"You heard me."

I rose an eyebrow. "How is Lyo?"

"Her heart gave out on the way here. They think the arrow had some sort of poison on it."

It took a few seconds for this to sink in.

"Oh my god," Allie said, stepping past me as if she wanted to throw her arms around him, but she stopped short a few feet in front of him. He didn't seem to notice.

"Now, what do you guys know about them?" he inquired again.

"What are you going to do, Conlan?" I asked, feeling small. "Were they involved...?"

He stepped past Allie and handed me a small piece of paper in a tidy scrawl.

"Lo;; yjr v;rtov. ;rsbr yjr Jimyrt.

Hry piy SDSP, Frny trsof.

-S"

I stared at it for a good few seconds. "Where did you find-"

"On the corpse of the guy who shot her. It says 'Kill the Cleric, leave the hunter. Get out ASAP. Debt repaid.' "

"From 'S', unless the signature follows the rest in which it's 'A' " I said, discovering the code at once. Using a keyboard wasn't new to me, so it wasn't hard to crack. "So.. You got him before I could get away."

"It only took a few Bomb Arrows."

"So you want revenge on this guy."

"He ordered Lyo dead."

I stared. "So what are you gonna do?"

"Get information and take him out."

"What, storm the Maffiya's headquarters?" said I. "That's suicide."

"Not if you know what you're doing it isn't... I have no intention of dying until I finish what I plan to do."

"And what is it exactly that you plan to do, then?"

"Oh, nothing legal, I assure you."

"You can't earnestly believe that I'm gonna let you do that," I grumbled, and stood up straighter. "Not alone, anyway."

"Uh huh. And if it does turn out to be a suicide mission?"

"Then I'd have to tell you to take some time to think before you do anything rash."

He shrugged. "So you've said it. Anything else?"

Something ticked inside of me. What he was saying was asinine, conceited... Selfish as well. To live for vengeance is not to live at all."

"Just that I don't think Lyo would be all too pleased that you'd want to throw your life away so easily for such a reason.

"Perhaps," Conlan replied acidly, "But I don't think she'd be all too pleased that she's dead either."

To this I had no reply, and I felt my face get hot.

"That's not fair," Allie chipped in, saving me from utter embarrassment. "We're only worried about you. You should really take more time to think this through."

Conlan turned to face her, his eyes covered and unreadable. But Allie must have saw something there, for she stepped back and put a hand over her mouth.

"I'm afraid," he said in a bit of a reserved tone, "That by this point, your worry is wasted."

She wouldn't give up, though. "No worry is wasted on a dear friend."

But by now I saw what had to be done. I laughed once, startling Allie, and punched my Meba into my waiting palm (careful not to jostle the trigger). "I see. Now, is this thing gonna be a suicide mission or what?"

Conlan looked at me. "Only if I do a sloppy job, which I intend not to."

I nodded. "Still, one man can't really do all that much to an entire organization. I propose we gather some-"

"Who said anything about an entire organization?" he quipped. "I just want the head of one man."

"Oh," I muttered. "That 'S' guy?"

"Seems so."

A short silence.

"Regardless," I continued, "I've got a short agenda for now."

"I beg to differ. What about Hideval, hm?"

"He's safe and sound by now," I explained. "Renon and Hamina are probably with him as we speak. I can't do much for them, but I'm sure a bit of a distraction in the ranks of the Maffiya would be a nice surprise."

"Dan, listen to me," Conlan said, stepping forward with such a silent ferocity that my mind fell completely silent. "How much help, exactly, would you want for your revenge? What if it was Allie who was killed?"

"..."

I paused and closed my eyes, realized Allie wasn't breathing right. The scenario must have been getting to her.

I knew exactly what Conlan meant but to articulate my feelings would be to lose this, and to lose this could very well lose a friend. I felt ashamed of myself. Determinedly keeping my gaze away from Allie, I looked back to Conlan.

"I see your point," I said in defeat, and Allie stiffened further out of the corner of my eye. "Just..." I added in quickly, "Just don't you dare die, okay?"

He replied, "I have no intention to," and it seemed I had nothing else to say.

I nodded solemnly. "If that's the case, then good luck. Keep me updated."

"Right... Watch your backs," he advised, "For they like to aim there."

I smiled grimly, but Allie, apparently overcome by emotion, had stepped forward and embraced him.

"Be careful, okay?" she said after the quick hug (that Conlan seemed reluctant to return). She did not look terribly insulted, but more understanding, and her eyes glittered as if the tears had welled up inside of them.

"Hey, Dandan," Conlan said to me, hefting his pack as he prepared to go. The ship would be off soon, after all...

"Yeah, Conman?"

"Don't die before I do."

I smirked and clapped him on the shoulder. "And I'll say the same, thus sealing what we shall know as the Mortality Paradox."

And with two sides of dry, substanceless laughter, he was off to the landings.

"He seemed really torn up," Allie said later that evening.

"Oh yeah?" I said from the couch, letting my book fall forward in a loose grasp. "Considering what happened, Allie? I'm surprised he wasn't sobbing when we... Well, rather, I'm not surprised, but any other man should have been crying, if not sobbing, at around the time we'd gotten there."

"Yeah, sure, except he looked like he'd done a few hours of that while we were still in the tower," she replied, setting a mug of tea in front of me (I thanked her and stirred it slowly). "He was wearing those thick sunglasses for a reason, Dan."

"Oh," I muttered, oblivious, though it certainly made sense. "You saw when you hugged him, then, I guess?"

"No," she sipped her tea and looked at me as if I had two heads. "Well, I mean, yes, but I knew he'd be crying beforehand. All you boys are the same, putting on a mask of cold logic and uncaring, that apathy crap. But even with the strongest of you, it fails to mask true sadness."

I sighed, silently agreeing with her philosophy. "Regardless, he was really acting off today."

"Obviously, I'd hope anyone would be."

"I know," I said impatiently, "That's not what I meant... I mean, most people don't just go out for revenge just like that. He really should have taken a few days to think, to grieve, before setting out with such a goal in mind..."

I fell silent and Allie didn't say anything. She didn't need to. We both knew that we were both thinking the same thing, and that was that we would have both done exactly the same thing in his place.

"Your jacket is vibrating," Allie exclaimed all of the sudden, and we both giggled nervously. She reached into the inner pocket (for she was still wearing it from the trip up) and handed me my Personal ID card.

"A message from Hamina," I explained, and she waved me on encouragingly.

I cleared my throat.

"Hideval's with us now. Poor bugger hasn't eaten in days, says he ran out of rations about a week ago. He's alive and healthy, though, a night's rest and a good meal and he'll be good as new. We're going to spend the night in Sleepywood and then go straight to Ellinia and then Orbis in the morning."

I paused.

"Is that it?" Allie asked after a few seconds.

"No," I said with a short laugh, and then turned off the gadget. "The rest was fluff, she went into detail about how glad Hideval was to see them, how he was bawling like a 'bloody Pomeranian, especially one giving birth'. "

We shared a short laugh and I sat back down and finished the tea over the course of the next quiet few minutes.

"Do you think Conlan will be okay?" Allie asked, breaking the thoughtlessness.

"I couldn't tell you right now," I told her, "But he's not the kinda guy to go down so easily. We shouldn't worry too much unless we don't hear from him."

"Okay," she said, and stood up. "Well, I got the bed last time, so I'll just take the couch. I'm tired."

The only room open in all of Orbis's overnight quarters was one of the smallest I've ever seen. It had two rooms: A bathroom and an everything-else room. As for sleeping, there was a small bed and a hard couch. We'd complained dearly when we'd first stepped in.

"I couldn't take the bed if I knew you'd be uncomfortable," I whined.

"The couch feels fine," she insisted, laying down on it (slowly and carefully) as if to prove a point.

"The couch wouldn't help your back, dear," I reminded her, "And I'm in perfect condition."

"That's a lie and you very well know it," she replied indignantly. "Your back looks like swiss cheese. Mine is fine, my aches are nothing new."

I shrugged. "I refuse to take the bed."

"Fine," she said, and threw the bed's pillow onto the floor, and then the top blanket.

"What are you doing?"

"If you won't take the bed," she explained, "Then you'll have to sleep on the couch. I'll be on the floor."

"Oh no you don't," I laughed.

Somehow we both ended up on the cold, hard, bare floor of this ruddy room.

But we still had each other... In my final waking moments before falling asleep, as she breathed softly from the crook of my shoulder, I realized how lucky I was and how grateful I should be.

Something was off, and I knew it.

No, it wasn't the hard floor giving me a crick in my neck, though that was indeed a factor of my discomfort. Something was very off, something in my head, and I couldn't figure it out.

It was nothing obvious at all. I could not recall my few dreams from the two hours or so that I'd drifted off, and yet I felt a horrible sense of deja vu about them. That deja vu feeling, so nostalgic, was nothing foreign as of recent. I'd been getting it on and off since... Since that day that thing happened with the Jr. Grupins.

Were they related?

But that wasn't just it, either. Something was very off, and something was going to happen to us. I felt very wrong, very uncomfortable, in a mental way, the way we were laying down.

And I knew right then, with a sense of strange calm, that we needed to move right that second.

I sat up carefully and swiftly, sliding out of the blankets. Allie groaned a little, as her favourite pillow had just slid off and was now standing up.

"Whuhdizzit?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Nothing, Allie," I said, keeping my voice normal even though my eyes kept darting around (to the window, it seemed?). "I just realized what fools we were."

I saw her silhouette tilt its head, and I knelt down to scoop her body into my arms in the same fashion you see a new groom carrying his bride. She wasn't heavy, and I had strong arms, so I wasn't about to drop her or anything. But she did squeak for a second, made an odd little sound somewhere between 'I'm scared" and "I trust you" and "Hey, that tickled!".

I set her carefully on the bed, and then tossed the pillows and blankets next to (or on top of) her. On an afterthought, I leaned onto the bed and heaved.

"What...?" she said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

With that thought, I explained, "I just think we should be sharing the bed instead of the floor... Er, that came out wrong. I mean, the floor is gonna kill both of our backs, the bed isn't, and we weren't taking up that much room-"

I finished pushing the bed, it was now adjacent to the far corner of the room.

"What are you trying to do, Dan?" Allie asked, awake now.

But something was still wrong. I tried to figure out what it was, and then tossed my Meba on the pile of blankets on the bed. I then decided that the room was too hot, and opened the window.

I then wondered why I did that, because it was freezing outside, but something in my head was telling me not to question it.

"Danny, what are you doing?"

Everything seemed about set. For what, I did not know. On the way back to Allie and the bed, I turned off the mana-powered nightlight (we were not uncomfortable in the dark, but Allie had insisted that she would be waking up early anyway and neither of us really minded the dim glow).

And then I felt calm, but there was still something to be done.

So I climbed into the bed to wait. Allie had pulled a blanket around her. "Danny," she whispered. "I don't know what you're doing, but I don't really fell comfortable... You know... With the bed and-"

"It's nothing like that, I assure you," I said, my mind on much more mortal matters.

"But..."

"Shh."

We were both silent for a second. I was listening for... Something. I didn't know yet. But something was about to happen.

"I think I'll just sleep on the couch, instead, if that's oka-"

And then I pulled her down, slipped the Meba on, and held her shoulders down.

"Danny?" she said, scared now.

"Shh, dammit, Allie..."

"I think I'll just go to the couch, Dan, really."

I put my hand over her mouth. "No, you won't," I replied firmly.

I'm pretty sure that was a mistake on my part.

She bit my hand and started to squirm. I was completely taken aback. I let go and she stood on the middle of the floor, turned, hands balled into fists. I stood up from the bed, dumbfounded.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" she whispered, and I could hear the tears in her voice.

I was silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out what was going on with her.

"...Oh. Oops," I said, when I thought about it.

"What do you mean, 'Oops'?"

"Allie, I'm not doing anything like that." And then an impulse hit me.

"Go lay down on the bed," I said firmly. And then I added, "Trust me."

And she did. She sighed inwardly and pulled the covers around her.

"No, let your hair show. Like, display it all over, as if you're showing off how long it is."

I could tell, though I could not see, that she rose an eyebrow but followed my directions anyway.

"Now lay down on the pillow and look at the wall. Pretend you're asleep, and don't break the act. Do not break the act until I tell you to. I'm gonna go stand in the bathroom."

She did. I did.

All was still for several minutes. I opened the door a few inches or so. Allie's act was quite convincing; Perhaps she'd actually fallen back asleep?

I reminded myself to apologize later for everything that just happened, though I was sure she'd forgive me in due time.

Voices, I just realized.

"-but where's the boy?"

Far away. The other side of the street, perhaps, outside of the window.

"It doesn't matter. We'll get him later. Or better yet, we can send him a finger and let him come to us."

Another voice, cold and unforgiving. It was very snakelike, if I had to put an animal on it.

The two laughed and the dialogue gave me that familiar sense of deja vu. I knew they were going to come in and try to kill Allie.

"No need to waste that scroll, then," the first voice said. "I'll just slit her throat and we'll carry her off."

I checked my Meba. Full of Tobis. So that's why I had this, eh...?

They quietly opened the door and even more quietly stepped in. A Warrior and a Mage of some sort. I couldn't tell what Levels, but you can always tell what class someone is by the armour. They stepped past my location and towards the bed, the Warrior pulling a small Field Dagger from his belt.

Mind, nobody was stealthier than an accomplished Assassin.

I cast a silent Dark Sight (and a Haste for good measure) and stepped out, leaving the door open less than a foot behind me.

The beauty of this skill, Dark Sight, was that I could generally make it so that if somebody knew I was there, and it was light out, I could make myself visible to them and just them. Unless Allie sat up, turned on the light, pointed at me and said 'That's Danny, he's using Dark Sight,' I was entirely invisible to these two men.

In the one second I had before adrenaline kicked in, I had to admire Allie's courage and trust. I'm sure she could hear what was going on, for as skilled as this Warrior was, it is hard to conceal the drawing of a steel blade. It was only on my actions, now, I realized, that Allie's life was leaning on.

No way in hell I could let that down, especially since she had been afraid of a rape less than ten minutes ago.

Before anyone could take another step, I let my instinct take over. Whereas my mind would show me the Critical weak points on a Mushroom or Drake, it showed me that there was a fairly large area between the Warrior's helmet and torso armour. A Tobi angled at one-eighty, going at anything faster than twenty-feet-per-second would kill him immediately. My average was around thirty, so that worked pretty well.

I hesitated for another second, and the Warrior made it all the way to the bedside.

The spring of power and adrenaline inside of me exploded in my fear, in the form of the swing of an Assassin's claw, a final gawk from a powerful Warrior, and the spraying of an odd pattern of blood all over a poor, timid Crossbowlady. Allie screamed, and I felt relieved that she didn't trust me quite that much.

In a second, the Mage whipped around, and I had to give him credit. He was going to use his staff, but this I had foreseen. I had thrown the first Tobi upwards, and so my whole arm was raised above my head. In a tenth of a second I could attack 'on the rebound' (a term we'd used in class about swinging repetitively, up down and diagonally, in quick succession), and of this the mage was aware.

He did not relent his grip on the staff, though.

"These are Tobis," I explained, my voice shaking. "A Lucky Seven to the face wouldn't be something you're going to walk away from alive."

He snarled, "Better than becoming a prisoner to the enemy."

At least, he would have, but I had swung again before he could finish the last word. And indeed, a Lucky Seven would have killed him, but I aimed instead for his arm. One Tobi embedded itself in his left bicep, the other in his left forearm.

Luckily, he was not a Cleric, and luckily, he was left-handed. Turns out that that wasn't luck, but I'll get into that later.

"It seems, good buddy," I hissed, kicking him to the ground, "That you don't have a choice in this one."

It was on this day, I realized, that Assassins were proven the best of the classes. Using only a Level Twenty-Five Claw (equipped with Tobis), wearing naught but a pair of pink, silky boxers, I outsmarted and defeated a Warrior and a Mage, both of whom had more combat experience than me.

"That's unfair," Allie said when I pointed it out the next morning. "You defeated them, yeah, but you had a serious upper hand in that environment."

"I saved our lives!" I complained. "You'd best be grateful!"

She laughed, I laughed. She kissed my cheek. I stopped laughing and sat still, confused again, and then smiled. That was foreign to me, I suppose, but not uninvit-

The door of the room opened and the officer stepped in, looking as tired as we felt.

"We can't break him," he said. "He hasn't said a word to us. We want permission to... Well, use more orthodox torture methods."

Allie looked at me. She detested torture, and she made it known when the officer first suggested it. The entire room knew that lawfully, the Mage's fate was of my jurisdiction.

"Give him a few more hours," I suggested. "Could I come in for a minute to see?"

"Uh, yeah, sure."

So me and Allie stood from the hard bench (surely the Government could do better) and followed Officer Some-Archer into the Interrogation Room.

That Mage from earlier stopped laughing immediately when we came in. He said something very nasty to me that had to do with where I should go in the afterlife and what I should do to my mother when I got there.

We had a full rig set up. My goal here was to find out who attacked us and why (the answers to which everyone knew and nobody could prove), and of course Allie the Merciful just wouldn't stand to see violence here.

She forgave me for ending that Warrior, though; As did the law. Something about self-defense including friends and family (As long as the law saw us as boyfriend-and-girlfriend, anyway. I was hoping for a bit more of a celebration in the official revelation of the title, but oh well.), and since I had roughly two seconds to act they expected no more from me. I considered that pretty fair.

Though I was never really a fan of torture, I was going to agree with it. What's one crony if it can give us a lawful standing against the Maffiya, anyway? Wouldn't that be some good for society, eh? Even the Officer (Neekins, that was his name.) seemed excited at this, the possible genesis of their demise.

And, of course, Allie was in the back of the room, nearly in tears, standing there silently in her bedclothes plus my good jacket. I knew she couldn't stand to see me resort to such a thing, and I couldn't stand to not have her stand me, so for now I was very willing to resort to more merciful measures. Anyway.

We had a full rig set up. The nameless Mage was tied down at the waist, ankles, and wrists. We had two volunteers sitting next to his naked feet, armed with large feathers and attacking him with a sort of bored vigour.

"So," I said calmly. "We have ways of making you talk."

"What the hell?" he retaliated sagely.

"You got a name?"

"Seymore Asses."

I snorted. "Yeah, me too, but only for pizza delivery guys."

He didn't move. I nodded and the featherguys continued doing their jobs.

He grimaced and squirmed subconsciously, twitching a little.

"You got a name?" I asked again.

He broke out into laughter. "A name?" he coughed out. "Is that so important to you?"

"No," I admitted, and motioned for the featherguys to stop.

"I'm sick of this," one of them muttered. "Can't we just cut off some fingers or something?"

Allie gagged in the back of the room and I glared at the complaining officer. "Feel free to take a break, then," I advised. "I'll watch Mr. Asses."

Once I thinned the room to myself and the man (with Allie waiting outside the door), I tried again.

"Name."

"Screw off."

"Who was that Warrior?"

"Yo mama's boyfriend."

"Why were you in our room?"

"To rape your sister."

I paused, confused. "Er, my girlfriend...?"

He smirked. "Same thing, you freaky ass bitch."

I laughed. He looked at me weird, and then snickered. I made a quick, jerky movement forward, as if I was about to slap him. He jumped in his bonds and stopped smiling.

"Allie's the only one keeping the blood in your veins right now," I growled, flexing my Meba-ed hand.

"I don't care."

I pulled the trigger, softly and harmlessly releasing a tobi onto the man's shirt. "I'm about that far away from having her leave the building so we can deal with you."

"I don't care."

I laughed. "You've never died before, have you?" I dropped my voice, loosened my stance, and smirked a demonic smirk. This acting was a favourite intimidation tactic of mine.

"It's pretty bloody creepy there," I hissed, still grinning. "The shit you'll see... And nothing ever moves. It's all completely still. Nothing ever even nudges. Entirely silent, entirely still. You think torture is hell?"

A new look in his eyes now, fear. And I couldn't blame him. As far as he was concerned, I was a lunatic. And still, he said, "I don't care."

I glared. He glared back. I moved my face in, smirked my evil smirk. He spat in my face.

"Ugh!" Repulsed, I lost my balance and fell backwards, wiping the sour-smelling phlegm off my cheek and upper lip. I stood up and had every intention to bring a hard heel down onto his reproductive organs, but Allie burst open the door.

"Don't..." she whispered. Apparently she'd watched the whole scene through the small window in the door rather than sitting in one of the chairs. That I should have seen coming.

I stared at her for a long time, and my gaze returned to the damnable Mage. He was looking at Allie in with both fear and murderous intent shining through.

"Hold him back, you little bitch, or else you won't get your information, right?" he egged. She seemed to ignore his words, but turned a fiery gaze unto him. I flinched, but he didn't seem to notice her eyes. He was looking lower.

"Don't talk to me, you murderous scum," she said acidly, and I felt a ping of guilt, remembering the Warrior. Did that push me down to their level, all situation aside?

"Murder is underrated, you whore," the Mage said. "You've never felt it, have you? The rush, the hunt. That feeling of power when you are king over another man. When you have his life in your palm and it is only you separating his life from his death. And his death is always timely, and usually bloody... Oh, the best part is making a mess, really, and leaving a trail back to yourself for more victims."

Allie's eyebrows raised. A new look, of solemn pity. She slowly raised her left hand, palm up, angling it between her eyes and his.

"Your life's in my palm, and today I'm truly Queen over a man," she corrected. "Danny's your King. But the Queen's the one that really rules, isn't she?" She smiled placidly. "Your death will be timely, and possibly bloody." (By now I was beaming at the look on the Mage's face. Absolutely priceless.)

And then she turned to me. "I'm gonna go get some lunch in town," she said, her voice shuddering a bit. "Go ahead and make a mess, if you want to."

I laughed, she smiled, and the Mage finally lost some facial colour.

((Again, sorry about the wait. I was only going to have this be about half of the chapter, but the rest is taking too long to write. Expect Chapter 12 in less than a couple weeks.

Look forward to Hid Lanef's fanfic, it should - rather, it had better be up soon. D: ))